Video: Isolating a texture with a layer mask

In the previous exercise, we mapped some rivets on to this guy's back, using a combination of the Hard Light Blend mode, and some Luminance blending. In this exercise, we are going to peel the rivets away from his arms and shoulders using a layer mask. Now I am working inside of an image called I need a dermatologist.psd, because this guy's back is broken out in rivets and it contains the armor layer and the back layer and a couple of hidden layers called edge and title as well. And bear in mind that we're building up essentially a heavy metal CD cover, that's the idea. I am going to go over to the Channels palette. You can see that I've already created the layer mask that you need to use, if you don't want to create it along with me.

The elusive alpha channel remains one of the most misunderstood yet powerful tools in Photoshop. Alpha channels are collections of luminance data that control the transparency of an image, and they inform just about every aspect of Photoshop. As he builds transitional blended layers, fashions a depth map, makes edge adjustments, and takes on extreme channel mixing, Omni Award-winning expert Deke McClelland teaches Photoshop users that where there's a will, there's a way. Photoshop CS3 Channels and Masks: Advanced Techniques covers mapping texture on an image, turning flesh into stone, using vector masks, working with all different channels, creating a rustic edge effect, and much more. Exercise files accompany the tutorials.

Isolating a texture with a layer mask

In the previous exercise, we mapped some rivets on to this guy's back, using acombination of the Hard Light Blend mode, and some Luminance blending. In thisexercise, we are going to peel the rivets away from his arms and shouldersusing a layer mask.Now I am working inside of an image called I need a dermatologist.psd, becausethis guy's back is broken out in rivets and it contains the armor layer and theback layer and a couple of hidden layers called edge and title as well.And bear in mind that we're building up essentially a heavy metal CD cover,that's the idea. I am going to go over to the Channels palette. You can seethat I've already created the layer mask that you need to use, if you don'twant to create it along with me.

So if you are just going to want to load it up or if you start gettingfrustrated or have problems with it. This is what the layer mask looks likeright there. It basically traces the contours of the guy's shoulder, believe itor not. This doesn't look like his back, but that's basically what it is and ittraces down his collar. This little indent is from a bracelet that the guy is wearing.All right, so I am going to switch back to the RGB image. I am going to showyou how I made it and then we'll go ahead and load that contour selection. So Iam using the Elliptical Marquee tool. It's all done using the EllipticalMarquee tool and the Lasso tool. You need to use a Elliptical Marquee tool inorder to select his shoulders. So there is lot of creative license here, youcan choose to select the shoulders differently than I am going to.

But basically, you may notice that he is kind of muscly, he's got these sort oflumps going across his back, they're good healthy lumps, but they are stilllumpy. So I can select those lumps using the Elliptical Marquee tool.So I draw one ellipse at the top there and then I am going to Shift+Drag todraw another ellipse across this lump. Then Shift+Drag to create anotherellipse right about there and then Shift+Drag to create another ellipse rightthere and so on. So you just basically select these areas using the EllipticalMarquee tool as I am doing here. Again, exactly how you decide to select thelumps is totally up to you, you don't have to slavishly do exactly what I amdoing, as if you would be able to, really. I mean, I am not sure that you wouldbe able to follow exactly what I am doing here on screen. All right, so onemore Shift+Drag, I think, so far I have described basically four ellipses for each shoulder.

Now having selected this rough area right here, I am not going to continue totry to meticulously select along his back. Instead, I would just go ahead andgrab the Rectangular Marquee tool, which I get by pressing the M key onceagain. Then I am going to go ahead and drag down his back like so, taking careto start things off of the intersection of the shoulder and his back rightthere on the right hand side and then I'll drag over to this side.So I have got the Shift key down, so I am adding this rectangle to thepreviously existing selection outline. I am also going to Shift+Drag up here atthe top of the image in order to select his neck and that would be thebeginning of my layer mask. So I would now go down to layer mask icon, makesure that the armor layer is selected, and then I go back down to layer maskicon and click on it in order to convert that selection to a layer mask and weend up with this mask right here.

Now I need to go ahead and get rid of some of the arm detail and I am going todo that using the Lasso tool. So I would go ahead and Alt+Click, actually, orOption+Click in order to describe a polygonal lasso around the arms, like so.Then I'll go ahead and Shift+Drag down here and release the Shift key with themouse button still down, remember that technique from several chapters ago.Then I am going to press and hold the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac, andnow I can continue clicking Shift. Because I had the Shift key down, I toldPhotoshop that I wanted to add to the selection. Because I now have Alt orOption down, I am describing a polygonal selection outline.

Once I get done selecting that arm, I would release the Alt or Option key andthen I would need to get the Ellipse tool once again. So I'll press the M key acouple of times in order to get that Elliptical Marquee tool. Then I wouldShift+Drag just around that little bit of bracelet right there. If you arehaving problems seeing exactly what you need to trace, then you can turn thearmor layer off for a moment.I have selected the areas that I think are going to work well for this. Nowwith the layer mask still selected, I would make sure that black is myforeground color. So I would press Alt+Backspace or Option+Delete to fill thoseareas with black and then I can click off the selection in order to deselect.

That looks pretty darn good.Now, I am going to, just to make sure that everything lines up perfectly right,because this edge layer needs to line up with these contours that I just drew,I am going to go ahead and trash that layer mask. I am going to go ahead andthrow it away. Another thing you can do, by the way, if you want to delete alayer mask, you can go ahead and click on it, make sure its active, and thenjust Alt+Click or Option+Click on the Trash can icon. As long as the layer maskwas active, only the layer mask will get deleted.I'll go back to the Channels palette. This is just so that I have a veryaccurate selection outline. I am going to Ctrl+Click or Command+Click on thatcontours channel right there in order to load it as a selection. Now I'll goback to the Layers palette, with the armor layer selected, I'll click on thelayer mask icon and that will go ahead and mask that armor inside of his back.

So here is the reason I wanted things to line up properly. This edge layer onlyworks if everything is exactly aligned. So I am going to turn on the edgelayer, and you can see that it covers up his shoulders and his neckline and so on.Now in order to make sure that we're just seeing the edges there, I am going togo ahead and clip this edge layer inside of the armor layer and I am going todo that by selecting the edge layer, so click on it. Then go up to the Layermenu and choose Create Clipping Mask or press a keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+G,Command+Option+G. The reason it's G is because this function used to be calleda clipping group, back in the old days.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and choose the command and now you can see that the edgesare clipped inside of the armer, so we have these nice D&D edges. Again, thisis perfect armor for summer. I am now going to turn on the title for this heavy metal CD.Now we have a band in residence here at lynda.com essentially. It's a groupcalled the Jellybricks, and strictly speaking, they are not heavy metal.Nothing of this sort, but I am figuring this would be a great breakout albumfor them here. This album doesn't really exist. This album called boltback,it's just a suggestion on my part, but the band really does exist, check themout, they are actually very, very good. Anyway, I am thinking, they do a coupleof Evanescence covers, they set the type in old English, they are set to go,this could be a great breakout album for them, I think.

So that's the first of our creative layer masking projects. We'll begin anotherone starting in the next exercise and that project will involve the masking of glass.

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